Sunday, June 17, 2007

Lindsey's Show

Exceptional, as expected.

He opened with just himself on stage, and did three songs--one of which was a very smooth rendition of Trouble, which I really liked.

After the opening, the rest of the band came onstage. There were only three of them. One played guitar, one was a drummer/percussionist, and the other was a guitarist/bassist (but not too often)/keyboardist. They started with Second Hand News. I was most impressed.

He played Go Insane, which I like a lot. There was a good mix of new solo stuff (which I've only heard on his web site), older solo stuff, and Fleetwood Mac songs. One of his lesser known songs, from Tusk, could be known as my theme song. It's the 5th song on Side 3 of the album; I liked his live version of it. Tusk itself was very well done, considering there were only four people on stage and no USC Marching Band.

I noted that my age probably put me in the lower half of the audience (but just barely), but I was definitely dressed in the nicer half--and I wore slacks and a pull-over collared shirt. I mean, I know the ticket said "casual dress", but this was an after-dinner show. I'm not expecting top hats for men and white gloves for women, but does dressing for the occasion no longer have any meaning? This isn't an outdoor concert, where shorts and flip-flops are acceptable. It's an evening show.

The show ended after about 90 minutes, of course with Go Your Own Way as the final song.

They opened the encore set with Holiday Road from National Lampoon's Vacation. A surprising treat!

I think they did four songs in the encore and then packed it in. Very well done.

I saw no evidence of Lindsey's "chemical dependence status", as Dean so delicately put it, but perhaps, at 57, he's too old for that crap. His guitar playing is still amazing--Big Love is a religious experience to those who marvel at guitar--but his voice, at least in the high notes, has lost at least half a step. But so has mine. Nuh guh age.

I broke even on my gambling :-) It was a nice day trip.

And now, pictures.

What you're seeing below is US Highway 50, which is also the main street through South Lake Tahoe, CA, and Stateline, NV--two cities separated only by a line on the map. Stateline held an Opening Day Block Party, although I don't know what it means to "open" Lake Tahoe, and traffic through both cities had to be rerouted through neighborhoods. Even bypassing downtown South Lake Tahoe by using the Pioneer Trail didn't spare me a lengthy wait in traffic, but it did reduce my wait significantly.

The Montbleu casino you see in the distance on the right is the former Caesars Tahoe. When Harrah's (the corporation) bought Caesars (the corporation), my guess is they had to divest of the Tahoe property because Harrah's already owns Harrah's, Harvey's, and Bill's, and maybe even the Horizon--they couldn't own the last casino! Anyway, nice block party. Horizon had a U2 cover band playing on the roof; the lead singer was no Bono, but the band was great.

The thought of "dressing up" for rock bands strikes me as hilarious. Rock musicians generally haven't worn suits and ties since the early 60s - why should their audiences dress better than the performers? It's not like we're talking about Itzhak Perlman here.

No, I don't think you're dated; I'm with you on shorts at school and on dressing up for certain venues. I was focusing more on the idea of dressing up for bands that perform music that is historically populist and often consciously rebellious.

The venue does matter, but only up to a point. I wouldn't dress up for Perlman playing at the Shoreline Amphitheater, but I also wouldn't dress up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing at Carnegie Hall.

In fact, I'm not sure one is supposed to dress at all for performances by the Chili Peppers ...